Isabella Cipirska

It was a moving moment as a blue plaque, which commemorates the Basque child refugees offered sanctuary in Lancing, was finally unveiled at a community event.

It was particularly meaningful for visiting speaker Jim Jump, as it was at Penstone House – now the site of Lancing Library – where the refugees were housed 80 years ago, that his parents met and fell in love.

Cayetana Lozano D�az and James Jump with some of the refugee children in Lancing in 1937

His mother, Cayetana Lozano Diaz, was only 22 when she was sent over from Spain in the summer of 1937 to help care for the 30 refugee children housed in the village.

Mr Jump told more than 50 attendees at the afternoon event on Saturday: “My mother was always very grateful for the way British people helped – ordinary people, who couldn’t afford much.”

Due to the public outcry that followed the bombing of Guernica, the government invited almost 4,000 people from Spain’s Basque region to seek refuge in the UK – on the condition that they were looked after entirely by volunteers.

Mr Jump’s father, James Jump, a reporter at the Worthing Herald, was one of the many local people who generously volunteered their time at Penstone House.

It’s important that people in Lancing remember their part in global events of the time

Jim Jump, speaker

He married Cayetana three years later in 1940, after fighting in Spain with the International Brigade for 14 months.

Mr Jump, who is the secretary of the International Brigade Memorial Trust, said the afternoon was ‘satisfying and moving’.

“It’s important that people in Lancing remember their part in global events of the time,” he said.

The International Brigade Memorial Trust was set up to ‘keep alive the memory and spirit’ of those ‘often forgotten’ people who went to fight in Spain’s Civil War.

Councillor Lee Cowen with the new blue plaque

Mr Jump travelled to the event in Lancing from London with a second speaker, Manuel Moreno, who is the son of a Basque refugee who came to England.

After the unveiling, guests enjoyed Basqued-themed food and live music from rock band the Dockyard oysters, folk singer Ian Fyvie and The Crows Feet in the sunshine.

Lancing spanish teacher Alan Bradley talked visitors through a library exhibition he had made explaining the story of the refugees in Lancing.

The exhibition of newspaper cuttings and photographs was first shown in September last year.

At the unveiling, with a mural of Picasso's Guernica. Photo: Sophie Cook

Councillor Lee Cowen, who organised the event, said it went ‘really well’ and said it was important to celebrate Lancing’s history.

The blue plaque, which is the village’s first, is located by the entrance to Lancing Library.

It has been funded by Lancing Parish Council.

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